With the realty rates at exorbitant levels and buyers postponing their plans, the number of unsold flats in the city stands at a staggering 35,000 units.

With the realty rates at exorbitant levels and buyers postponing their plans, the number of unsold flats in the city stands at a staggering 35,000 units.

There were about 33,600 units unsold four months ago.

These are the findings of Liases Foras, the real estate research firm, which indicated that buyers were highly reluctant to make purchases. “The sales are not happening as the current rates are simply unaffordable,” said Pankaj Kapoor, chief executive officer, Liases Foras. “We have seen lot of launches in the last few months but the sales were down,” he added.

Another major finding is there are approximately 1.13 lakh unsold apartments in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), which apart from Mumbai includes Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad. In January, the number of unsold apartments in MMR totalled 95,000 units. These include both ready-made flats as well as buildings that are being constructed. Liases Foras says that 150 projects were launched recently in the MMR of which 50 were in Mumbai.

However, builders disagree with the unsold figures calling them misleading. “Builders are facing monetary crises and cannot afford to hoard such a huge stock,” said Anand Gupta, secretary, builders association of India.

Paras Gundecha, president, Maharashtra Chambers of Housing Industry (MCHI) called the figures exaggerated. “We have hardly got any approvals in the last one year, so how can we hoard any housing stock?”